Innovative responses to the complex challenge of urban poverty, Design With the Other 90%: Cities, are on exhibition in at the United Nations Headquarters lobby. By merely choosing to exhibit “concrete” improvements in the livelihoods of the world’s poor, The Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum exhibit breathes […]

Innovative strategies are being developed in Latin American countries as an attempt to provide access to adequate housing. With new programs and additional funding, governments and the private sector are refining targets to close the housing gap. Brazil, under the Rousseff administration, recently announced the second phase […]

With daily news from Egypt focused on unrest in the country – the kind of long-term pent-up frustration that comes from entrenched social, political and economic exclusion – I was fortunate to come across the work of the Historic Cities Programme of the Aga Khan Trust for […]

As the new and rapidly growing urban areas of the developing world reach to build dynamic, competitive cities, promoting heritage conservation is a central issue – not just for foreign tourism, as is often thought – but also for promoting livelihoods, economic development, cultural identity and urban […]

With research and writing assistance from Estephani Garcia The eighth annual Mexican Housing Day (February 10, 2011) in New York City and London gave the government, financial institutions and publicly listed (not the vast majority of unlisted developers and builders) housing developers a chance to crow about […]

(With thanks for research and writing assistance from Marium Gul and Jennifer Barron) Brazil’s floods in recent days, stunningly echoed in Australia, highlight the climate hazards that pose a major threat to citydwellers’ welfare, not only in Brazil, but the world over. They also point to major […]

It’s fascinating to see that India’s Lavasa project is planning to raise up to 20 billion rupees (or $425 million) in equity on the Indian stock market in an initial public offering (India’s Lavasa to file papers for $425 mln IPO – Reuters) out of a total […]

This article in the Economic Times (Calls to scrap Dharavi makeover gain ground) highlights the tailspin that the Dharavi redevelopment plan has been in. Having gone from a proposal that attracted the interest of bidders from all over the world to one that started to repel investors […]

China’s real estate community is in a stir over news published in the July 9th edition of the People’s Daily International. Titled “What Does the High Housing Vacancy Rate Mean?” (in Chinese), an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimates approximately 64.5 million currently empty […]